The great gold repatriation has begun… Germany’s Bundesbank announced that the country repatriated 85 tons of gold from New York in 2014, far surpassing its previous estimates of 30 to 50 tons — and laying to waste a Bloomberg article you might have seen last summer insisting t​hat the Germans were happy to keep their gold in American vaults. Turns out, not so much happiness. You might really label it: concern about keeping their gold in America. Including the gold repatriated from Paris, Germany brought home 120 tons last year. And the Netherlands, meanwhile, removed 122.5 tons of gold — about one-fifth of their total gold stored overseas — from New York, bringing it back to Amsterdam. So the message I’ve been writing about for a long time is now getting clearer: Governments simply do not trust the global, fiat monetary system any longer. Nor should you. Germany is just the latest in a collection of governments that no longer want their gold held in U.S. and U.K. vaults, the resting places for much of the world’s sovereign gold since after World War II. Last year I wrote about how Austria suddenly decided that the British central bank in London maybe wasn’t the best place to keep their gold. It doesn’t end there. France, Belgium, Austria, Ecuador, Finland, Switzerland, Venezuela, Romania and Poland: They’re all either talking about repatriating national gold or they’ve already done so. Some are clearly countries run by leaders with a populist agenda — to wit, Venezuela and Ecuador. Others are run by sober governments making sober decisions about national wealth in a time of global economic worry. These countries want their gold back because they’ve lost trust in the global banking system that they themselves are the very heart of. They’re the wizards behind the fiat-currency curtain … and even they are scared! Better to have local gold back on home ground than exposed to a global financial system that could make retrieving gold in a crisis truly problematic. Imagine, for a moment, a world in which a currency crisis erupts in the West, gold prices soar, gold ETFs and other paper-based golden assets are crashing in the U.S. because of their internal construction flaws, regulators and banking officials are trying to figure out who owns what gold … and you, a central bank, are trying to suddenly repatriate tons of gold. Taking back their own gold now is the safe bet in an unsafe world … and it is, effectively, a vote of no confidence in modern monetary policies. The crisis might not erupt today. It might not come tomorrow. Or even next year. But the actions of so many sober-minded central bankers bringing their country’s gold back home is that proverbial canary in the coalmine. Will You Be on the Wrong Side of History? To anyone who has sold their gold in recent months, I say this: The actions of Germany, the Netherlands and others repatriating gold tells you that you’ve made a mistake. Why is it that central banks the world over refuse to sell their gold reserves? Why is it that the World Gold Council continues reporting that so many continue adding to the gold holdings every quarter? Too many on Wall Street, inside the Fed, and those wandering around looking for a Dairy Queen and a Coke in Omaha, Nebraska, would have you believe that gold has no intrinsic value. Yet all over the world, central banks in countries giant and small disagree. Now, it’s up to you to pick a side: Do you side with U.S. central bankers who talk down gold as a quaint relic that’s out of step with modernity? Or do you side with 100 central banks around the world who are increasingly putting their reserves in gold rather than fiat currency? I absolutely know what side I’m on. Until next time, stay Sovereign … Jeff D. Opdyke